The Epitome of Friendship
by chimericaldreams
Summary: A special dedication to a friend on her birthday. A tale from next generation. When Clara's antics land her in trouble, who else will be there for her besides her favorite cousin? R&R!


**The Epitome of Friendship **

**Author's Note: **_Since coming to this site, I've met a lot of wonderful writers and reviewers alike, but in the very first few weeks after I joined I met someone whose inspiration helped me to finish Second Chances and just helps me to be a better person on a daily basis. We've since become very good friends and a long time ago I promised her this was in the future sooner or later as soon as I finished Second Chances, which I did but I never ended up writing it. I didn't forget Molly! So this story is dedicated to PirateQueen716 on her birthday, which is why some of the characters are changed, to fit her storylines. (It includes Pattie from my story, Clara from hers.) I love ya girl, Happy Birthday!_

It was always one of the two extremes: either Patricia Halliwell loved her baby cousin to pieces or she really _really _hated her. On no account would she feel one way for long because for some reason, this child could take her mood and flip it completely in less than a minute. Nevertheless, she meant more to Pattie than anything else.

They were on the darker end now of Pattie's feelings for her cousin. Clara was eight, or as she liked to put it, 'practically nine' and probably the most devious little child Pattie had ever come in contact with. By definition, she was a twice-blessed magical being of the next generation: the oldest daughter of a witch and a cupid who harnessed an enormous amount of magical ability which would only grow as she did. The problem? Clara knew this, and was way too eager to rush the development of her inner magic. Pattie and Billie, a family friend who'd been around longer than Clara had been alive, did their best to teach the child to control her powers, but that only went so far.

Tomorrow was her cousin's ninth birthday and of course the entire family would be throwing a birthday party. It was a Saturday night and Pattie had graciously taken to Phoebe's request for a sitter so she and the rest of the adults could tend to decorations, wrapping presents and of course, the cake back at the manor. As far as Pattie knew, Phoebe and Coop wouldn't be back until early the next morning and she had hoped Clara would stay on her best behavior for at least the duration of the evening. Pattie had tucked Olivia and Lydia in bed hours ago and spent some bonding time with her little cousin, but when boredom submerged and overwhelmed Clara, she'd begin haphazardly throwing random potion ingredients into a pot. Seeing as she was checking on the younger Hart sisters at the time, it had almost escaped Pattie's notice.

Until of course she'd come out to see an abandoned kitchen and a missing eight-year-old.

"Clara Paige Halliwell!" Pattie screeched as she picked up an abandoned fragment of rosemary lying at the foot of a wooden stool, "get out here right now before I use my magic to summon you!"

Birthday or no birthday, Pattie was going to see to it there were consequences for disobeying.

It wasn't always like this; in fact if Pattie could remember that far back there was time that she'd doted on her newborn cousin. A time before Clara could speak, or walk; it seemed so distant now.

**Flashback: February 14, 2008**

_She felt her aunt's fingers lace between hers. Together they watched through the glass as the nurse placed the baby into the makeshift crib in the nursery. Eyes half open, she flailed her tiny plump arms about excitedly, beginning to explore the new world she had been welcomed into._

_"Clara looks like Aunt Phoebe," Pattie offered, still watching the infant because she was unable to unglue her eyes from the beautiful girl. It wasn't a stretch either; Clara had Phoebe's dazzling brown eyes and thin curved lips. Every part of her was cloned to photos Pattie had seen while skimming through family albums._

_Paige nodded in agreement. "That's usually how it works with genetics, sweetie," she replied somewhat sarcastically, to which the teen giggled. _

_Pattie, looking so young for her tender age of fifteen, turned to face Paige. Her eyes were set aglow in pleasure. She loved Wyatt and Chris dearly but this little girl was the first girl cousin she had now, the one who could distract Pattie from the flying toy trucks and cars. She had spent the majority of her time helping Phoebe through the pregnancy, so anxious for the day that had finally come: the birth. Now with ten fingers and toes, Clara Paige Halliwell was as perfect as could be. Pattie stared into the nursery at the new member of her family, smiling so broadly as Clara gurgled from her spot in the crib._

_"Aunt Phoebe said I could hold her soon, can I now?" Pattie begged, swinging around to face Paige and clasping her hands together with all the hope her body held._

_Paige sighed, knowing Phoebe was resting but that Pattie was too excited to wait until she woke up. Figuring her sister wouldn't mind, Paige rolled her eyes and gave in, "Oh, I suppose so." _

_Not even ten minutes later Pattie found herself sitting smack dab in the middle of the nursery. The rocking chair creaked the slightest bit as she lulled back and forth, but Pattie didn't notice. Her eyes were fixed on the bundle of joy, 7 pounds 3 ounces, that was swaddled in the nurse's experienced hands. As the time came nearer she squeezed the armrests of the chair with tense exhilaration. _

_"Now rest your hand slightly under her head just like that," the nurse explained, instructing by attempting to move Pattie's hand to the very position, but it was already there. "Well, you're just a natural, aren't you?"_

_Pattie smiled knowingly, "I have two toddler cousins, I've done this before."_

_When the nurse left them alone and Pattie was sure Paige could no longer be hovering in the doorway out of paranoia, she relaxed. Clara, to her relief wasn't crying, not in the slightest bit. She stared up at Pattie with curiosity in eyes which were squinted to remain shielded from the bright light. Pattie continued to rock her as she'd been taught to do with Chris and Wyatt over the past years when she babysat them. And a few minutes later, Clara gurgled and her lips shaped into a semi-smile. Instantly, Pattie fell into a state of greater pleasure._

_"Did you just smile at me?" she asked the baby, adjusting Clara slightly in her arms. "I bet everyone will just say you didn't really smile, but we both know you did, right Clara?" Pattie teased, knowing well she wasn't getting an answer. When Clara just snuggled in her blanket, Pattie continued. "You're so cute, everyone's gonna be fussing over you. That's what they always do, but don't worry, it's kinda nice. Your mommy is so amazing, you know that? She's so happy to have you, and I am too. You're gonna be like my little sister okay?" Pattie giggled when Clara fussed slightly, "I promise, I'm not that bad. I'll never let anything happen to you, Wyatt or Chris, okay?"_

_She planted a kiss on the newborn's forehead and continued to rock her until she'd lost track of the time._

As Pattie peered into the dark and bedroom, she began to wonder if Clara had been using the potion ingredients to cloak herself. After all, there was no where else for the sneaky little girl to be hiding. Pattie sighed, flicking on the light switch and letting the glow of the purple and silver themed room illuminate in front of her; at 23 she was getting too old for this. "Clara, if you're in here, I swear to God…"

She didn't finish that sentence in hopes Clara would for her and ultimately retreat from hiding. No luck.

"Come on honey, I wasn't _that _angry," Pattie quickly amended, figuring Clara feared punishment for once again leaving things lying around which did not belong to her. Pattie padded over to the closet and inspected inside of it. "It's just sometimes with certain things, especially involving magic, there are certain rules…"

The sound of shattering immediately caused Pattie to snap back into an upright position. Her attention turned to the butterfly chair which was overturned and lying on it's side. The hideaway of a culprit.

Clara had obviously escaped, Pattie realized, quickly and quietly when she'd been hunched over and skimming through the contents. And then there'd been a crash. Patting the growing bump on her stomach, Pattie thought cynically to herself, _isn't part of being pregnant supposed to be no stress at all?_

Gathering all the composure she could manage, Pattie headed out into the living room and ended up in the kitchen where she found pots, pans, and other cooking utensils strewn out about the tile floor. She said a silent prayer to God that they weren't in Piper's kitchen and then noticed the very guilty looking child standing amongst the heap of supplies, her cheeks coated red with the embarrassment of being caught red-handed. It didn't take more than a minute for Pattie to piece together the puzzle; Clara had been so determined to create this potion that she'd taken the risk of defying Pattie's orders by frivolously throwing all the quickly gathered items into a pot. Unfortunately, the plan had blown up in her face when they'd all tumbled from the cabinet to the ground.

Seeing that a lecture and consequences for her actions were quickly approaching, Clara looked for a cover. She put on the innocent face, which seemed to face Pattie less as she grew older. "Look, Pattie, I can explain, all I really wanted to do was just prove that I could make a really good potion and—"

"Save it," Pattie cut her off. "You deliberately disobeyed the rules and it's not the first time either. I'm just not in the mood tonight Clara, I'm not." Her stern expression was unyielding. "You do the crime, you serve the crime. Time out, twenty minutes, go!"

"Twenty minutes," Clara complained, her voice squeaky, "That's practically a lifetime!"

Pattie heard a bit of her younger self in her cousin, but remained firm. "Clara…" she warned, "I said go!"

"But my birthday's in a couple of hours!! You can't punish me!" she whined harder, looking for an out.

Feeling even more frustrated, Pattie assumed an unyielding stance and reaffirmed the glare in her eyes so that Clara knew she wasn't messing around. The last time Clara had mixed potion supplies together carelessly, she'd almost blown up the house. "Until that clock says twelve o'clock you're still under my watch and it's still just any average day. You're in trouble and you will sit there until I say."

Turning back towards Pattie as she trudged in that direction, she tried again, "But Pattie! I just—"

"You just thought you could trick me and you got caught. Now sit down and don't talk until I say."

So there Clara sat, cross-legged on the wooden chair that stood adjacent to the doorway of the condo. Clara and her two younger sisters occupied that seat often for one reason or another but each truly hated it. Phoebe had chosen it because it was uncomfortable and in a location where everyone would see that you'd done something wrong, in the hopes it would prevent said person from involving themselves in the same problem.

Pattie watched as she propped her head on her hands, looking miserable enough. Shame flashed through her eyes; she often acted before thinking and it got her in trouble.

Clara's actions were probably based of a bet or dare made by Wyatt or Chris now that Pattie considered it. More often than not, her actions were in response to something done by the two of them.

Pattie laughed out loud as she remembered one particular one that stuck out in her mind.

**Flashback: April 7, 2013**

_For a girl who was usually buzzing with chatter the entire car ride home, Clara had been abnormally quiet today. Pattie took an extra second in time to glance into the rearview mirror at her three cousins as she drove down the busy streets of San Francisco. Every day after school was let out, Pattie would pick Wyatt, Chris and Clara up to save her aunts the trouble of driving and was used to having the kindergartener at her back, brimming with a story book of tales to share with Pattie. Each moment of time was detailed, stories running from the moment her seatbelt was clicked into place to the second she was in Phoebe's possession. Pattie didn't enjoy not being able to get a word in edgewise, but without the chatter it seemed rather empty. _

_Through the mirror Pattie could see Wyatt leaned back against the window and Chris in the middle engaged in a conversation and exchanging trading cards of a TV cartoon they both watched. Clara was sitting in the seat behind Pattie as usual, watching the banter between her cousins longingly, as if she could join in._

_Alerted, Pattie decided to press the issue when they stopped at an intersection. "Clara, what's wrong?"_

_Clara looked up at Pattie and shook her head, shrugging to imply that nothing was._

_"Sweetie, you usually have your life's story to tell and I haven't heard a word from you today. Now something's up, what is it?" Pattie reiterated, taking notice of the way Wyatt and Chris were scrutinizing her, as if they were going to affect any answer that may come out of her mouth. And again, nothing did._

_Wyatt and Chris covered their mouth to stifle the spurts of laughter. Pattie noticed them high-fiving in the background. "What's so funny, Wyatt?" His mouth snapped closed, busted. "Hmm, Christopher?" _

_Chris kept laughing, then enjoyment he was having was too much to suppress. "She can't talk," he said._

_At this moment, Clara had found the doodling pad she took to school each morning for art class, along with a pen, and was scribbling something down with the neatest handwriting she could manage. A second later, she held up the paper with almost illegible letters. There was an arrow pointing towards Chris and Wyatt along with the word 'mean'. Once both boys had read this, they collapsed into another fit of laughter._

_"What did you two do?" Pattie questioned as she pulled around a corner. _

_Clara hurriedly scrawled a stick figure onto the page and drew a bold X over it's mouth. "We made a bet she couldn't go a whole car ride without saying a word," Wyatt clarified. "She's actually winning!"_

_It was at least a twenty minute car ride and in Clara's short existence Pattie was sure she'd never managed to stay quiet for that amount of time. It was nearly an impossibility! But to everyone's surprise, Clara crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out at her older cousins, feeling superior in the way that she never had before._

_She eventually made it all the way home without a word. The money, five dollars, that the boys had paid her as a prize had been an expected happiness, but the way Pattie had smiled at her and congratulated Clara for standing her ground had given the little girl a feeling that provided better wealth than money ever could._

_Somehow, Pattie always made her feel like that. _

While the final minutes of Clara's punishment ticked by, Pattie studied the face of her little cousin and remembered the once infant that had fit in the crook of her arms before seeing that five year old sitting in the back of her car on another drive home. "You know kid, I know being nine tomorrow is exciting, but what were you doing? Trying to create an explosion to send you flying so far it knocks you into the next generation?" Clara stared at her as if she were telling Pattie she wasn't stupid and challenging her to prove otherwise. "Oh, very sly miss. Using my own orders against me. Go ahead; you're given the right to talk."

Clara crossed her arms angrily and looked away, but Pattie couldn't determine whom she was frustrated with. "Wyatt and Chris and I were looking at the Book of Shadows and we found the page on how to make the doves. They said that they bet I couldn't do it before I turned nine."

"And you had to prove them wrong I gather?"

"Of course!" Clara cried back. "Because otherwise my birthday wouldn't have been perfect."

"You definitely shouldn't let what you're cousins say dictate the actions you make. They're boys Clara, very immature ones I might add. And what you forget to take into account is that they make that bet knowing most of the time that what you do gets _you _in trouble but lets them off the hook," Pattie scolded adamantly. She waited a minute for the typical high-pitched retaliation that her cousin would throw back her way, but Clara continued to face the other way completely silent. When the stillness began to worry Pattie, she called gently, "no response from the peanut gallery?" Clara turned, her face half hidden in the shadows to mask her crying.

"I'm sorry Pattie," she sniffled, trying not to show the tears beginning to drop from her eyes. "But Chris and Wyatt always win. I just wanted to prove for once that I was just as good as them!"

As far back as Pattie could recall, Clara had never been competitive with her little siblings. She was an affectionate the majority of the time and Lydia and Olivia both adored her because she never acted condescending towards them, more or less because she felt empathy to them after how she'd been treated. After all, those who didn't know better were often mistaking Wyatt and Chris for Clara's older brothers rather than her cousins. She was the closest cousin to them in age; their own little sister was five years younger and much harder to push around. Clara, only two years below Chris and four behind Wyatt, was an easy target and though both boys did love her dearly, they had bizarre ways of showing it.

Until now, Pattie hadn't realized how much Clara took the things they said personally. She decided that, with only an hour left until it was officially Clara's birthday; it was time to try a more gentle approach. When Clara was not anticipating it, she stood up and heaved the little girl, still incredibly light for eight years old, into her arms. "What are you doing?!" she exclaimed, finding herself laughing immediately.

Even with the pregnancy, it wasn't difficult to haul Clara across the living room floor and back to the kitchen. She placed the child on one of the stools and gathered the spare ingredients that hadn't fallen on the floor, piling them onto the table. Clara stared at her with wide eyes. "Well, looks like we only have about an hour left until you're officially nine, so I guess we

Clara perked up, already grabbing at the paper with different notes from the Book of Shadows. "Really?!"

Ruffling the little girl's hair, Pattie took a seat next to her. "Would I really let you down?"

They worked for nearly half an hour trying to replicate the potion that Pattie had not created since high school. Prue had been the first to take on the daunting task of making doves from potion ingredients and finally succeeded after numerous failed attempts. Pattie could remember lying on her mother's bed and watching her brow furrow in confusion when she couldn't get it right and how extremely in awe she'd become when it'd finally worked. Paige was the next one to succeed, following in Prue's footsteps only a few years later. It was incredibly tough, so much so that Pattie wasn't even sure Wyatt or Chris had mastered it yet; Pattie herself had been sixteen the first time she'd been able to throw the contents from her hand and doves had transformed before her eyes.

From Billie's classes, Clara had learned which spices blended well and which created deathly explosions. She fiddled with the spices to add to the potion pot carefully, afraid any minor mistake could lead to a mess up.

"If I don't do this by myself, it won't count," she reminded Pattie looking helpless.

"Hey, don't look so unsure of yourself there," Pattie encouraged, "you can do it. And I'll help you without actually handling them." She shot Clara an inspiring smile. "Go ahead."

As she settled onto the stool adjacent to Clara, Pattie found herself impressed. As if by heart, Clara cautiously added each ingredient into the pot; Pattie was sure Billie would be proud. It took twenty minutes to make the preparations perfect but the end result was worth it. "That's it," Pattie guided her, "don't be afraid of it. You can do this" Clara finally cupped her hands gently around a handful of the mix. Pattie held her breath as she released it and as the grains flew through the air. There was a bang and a cloud of dust; and from that a dove formed.

Clara was so overcome with joy that it was impossible not to giggle as she brought her hands to her mouth. "I did it!! I proved them wrong!" She flung her arms around Pattie, "that was the best birthday present ever!"

"I didn't give you anything Clar, you it all by yourself."

That same feeling she always had when Pattie was proud of her returned; she happily joined Pattie on the couch and spent the rest of the time bonding with her cousin, counting down until it was finally almost twelve o' clock. She was barely able to keep her eyes open now. "Pattie?" she asked. Pattie looked down at her curiously. "I just wanted to thank you. Even if you're my cousin you're still also…" Clara yawned, resting her head on Pattie's shoulder and not hesitating to rest against her comfortably, "…my best friend ever."

And as the Grandfather clock rang twelve times and Pattie looked down to notice that Clara was sleeping soundly, wrapped safely in Pattie's arms, she couldn't help but smile. Sure, Clara was a pain in every way possible but she was also a miracle that Pattie sometimes forgot to be thankful; friendship offered in a small package.

The soft hum of Clara's light snoring was the only sound left in the condo as Pattie laid her cousin down in her bed and planted a kiss on her forehead every so lovingly. "Happy Birthday sweetie, I love you."

**Hope it wasn't too cheesy for you Molly! HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRL!!!**


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